I knew this would happen. We’ve received numerous heart-rending pleas from ex-charter members claiming they slept through the thunderstorm of subscription renewal announcements, e-mails and FAQs we cranked out over the past month and asking to be reinstated. After huddling with Jerry, who will have to do most of the work, we’ve decided as follows:
You still have to pay $14.95 to resubscribe. I mean, come on, we did everything but hire the Goodyear blimp. However:
If you (a) re-up between now and Monday, May 2, 2005 at noon Chicago time, and (b) were a charter member before, we’ll reinstate you as a charter member now, meaning that NEXT year, assuming you’ve got your act together, you’ll be able to resubscribe at the 50% rate. Jerry is going to compare the list of post 4/28/05 subscribers against the original charter member list, which is a royal pain, so to make his life a little easier, please e-mail TubaDiva at tubadiva@aol.com requesting reinstatement AFTER you have paid up.
Next year, pending further discussion with Jerry, we’ve going to have the subscription deadline be some limited number of days AFTER the subscription expiration date. Nothing like discovering you can’t post to convince you to get your rear in gear.
For the record, we currently have 3,096 active subscribers, 981 of whom paid after 4/25/2005, and 91 of whom paid after 4/28/2005 at noon Chicago time.
So Like, I re-upped at about 2:00 on 04/28. AFTER the “lose your charter” status deadline, but before 04/29. Am I screwed now because I’m in “The Window Of No Account?” Because something very like this got in the way of me becoming an Air Traffic Controller and I’ve been a miserable piece of human flesh ever since.
I don’t suppose there’s any way for someone who just recently (read “a few weeks ago”) rediscovered the SDMB and its new paid basis to get a charter membership?
Don’t sweat it, any former charter member who re-upped after the deadline but before the NEXT deadline is in. Send Tuba an e-mail to be on the safe side.
OK, Most esteemed and wizened splitter of hairs. How about 7 months? I lurked for quite a while before even daring to post, and about a month later the board went to subscription, and I went back to lurking. The board still recognized my profile, I just didn’t cough up until november, when a poster needed some help IRL in my area. Turns out I was too late to help. Such is RL
IMHO, folks in my category should be members, we were not amoung the first subscribers, forming the charter. We can feel cool about our early join date, and explain it to anyone who notices.
I would like to state that I do not wish to be a Charter Member, and if I find that title under my name, I shall whine and complain until it is removed.
So, how much does our subscription go up for that?
Done, and done. Sorry for the personal e-mail when the answer was right here in fornt of me. See below.
Now that’s the kind of smart thinking we late-paying, inattentive, whiny customers have come to expect for our hard-earned money!
A copy of the e-mail I sent TubaDiva:
[quote]
[ol]
[li] Yes, I’m a stoopid doofus, and inattentive.[/li]
[li] Yes, in spite of the best efforts of The Straight Dope to get my attention and direct me to thinking about my pending renewal, I continued on a haze of blissfull ignorance until brought up by the cruel reality of having my subscription lapse.[/li]
[li] Yes, I too rarely check my own spam folder.[/li]
[li] Yes, I immediately whipped out my credit card and renewed.[/li]
[li] Yes, the little words under my screenname now simply say “Member.”[/li]
[li] Yes, I pay too little attention to the “About This Message Board Forum;” the arrogance, and fault, are all mine. I promise to pay more attention, on pain of forfeiture of my “Charter” status if I screw up again.[/li]
[li] Yes, Ed told me to bug you about it. So, you want your charter membership back…. Not me specifically, you know. But pretty much everyone, of which “me” are a part of. “Teeming millions,” and all that.[/li]
[li] Yes, if it’s not too much trouble, I would humbly plead for mercy (and not too much derision; my ego is occasionally fragile) from the Board admins. in getting that word “Charter” back in front of the word “Member.” [/li]
[li] Yes, I realize you are busy, and swamped by similar requests from all the other doofuses, and probably have better things to do with your life than listen to me whinge.[/li]
[li] Yes, in fact, getting “Charter” back under my screenname may very well go some way towards helping repair my fragile ego.[/li]
[li] And yes, I occasionaly slam The Straight Dope; but it’s better than kicking the dog, taking up genital piercing, or climbing a clock tower with a high-powered rifle. Since you’d probably prefer I NOT do two out of the three options above, I can’t promise never to do it again, but look at it like this: I’m the guy who forked over $14.95 instead of $7.00 + change because (see 1, 2, 3, & 6 above), so I’ve got a right to complain in a pathetic attempt to cover up the fact that I’m (see 1, 2, 3, & 6 above).[/li]
[li] And yes, I will say “please.” “Pretty please?” “Pretty please with sugar on top?”[/li]
[li] You know, I always liked you best of all the admins and mods. Whenever I screw up and ask you to fix some errant coding because I’m too stoopid to “Preview” (Lord knows I’ve done that a few times!), you scream at me (and berate me) the least.[/li]
[li] And yes, you may print this out, and use this*, and make everyone else pleading for “Charter” status back in their profile sign, date and notarize it, and send it back with appropriate bribes.[/ol][/li][/quote]
I figured The Straight Dope wouldn’t particularly care if I had sharp, pointy object rammed through my genitals, and would be somewhat interested in hearing about it after the fact (fighting ignorance, and all that).
Yes, I recall that just by posting it, The Chicago Reader and/or The Straight Dope gets it forever and ever. Such is the price of immortality, or the closest reasonable facsimile thereof I’ll ever see.
I think that if I (of all people) managed to pay on time why should all the procrastinators be given back their charter membership? Unless of course you amend my title to Charter Member Godess.
Actually there was a semi-recent thread that brought up the idea as a sort of stupidity tax. The idea was, of course, quickly, thoroughly, and deservedly shot down in flames.
I wasn’t a charter member before, but the reason for that is I that I didn’t realise the reduced $5 fee would be renewed yearly, I thought it was a one time deal. So I didn’t care for the grace period for charter membership. Possibly that was made clear at the time and I didn’t pay attention but anyway, now it bugs me to pay $15 every time because of that misunderstanding. It really doesn’t seem fair that because I don’t subscribe in April I have to pay 300% the charter price. I could understand why that was so the first time around, but always? Come on… I don’t care about the title, it’s just that this is a suckers deal for non-April subscribers.
Proving that you didn’t pay attention is the fact that the reduced fee is 50% of the current full subscription rate, not $5. I paid $7.48 to renew this year. Also, you could have, if so inclined, extended your subscription by a year for $9.95 this year. That would have cut your surcharge down to 33%.
